Owen Smith: Labour is “certain” to lose 2020 election under Jeremy Corbyn

Owen Smith today claims that a victory for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership contest would deliver a “certain victory” for the Tories in 2020 and even undermine the prospects of a Labour win in 2025.

The challenger says Labour will become an “unelectable political party” if Corbyn triumphs this summer and paints a stark vision of an “unencumbered” Tory government including increased use of the private sector in the NHS and a “massive expansion” of grammar schools.

Smith will use an event in London this morning to set out what “a decade of Tory policies will mean for Britain” as he publishes a document setting out the threat of Conservative reforms to public services and new curbs on workers’ rights.

The former shadow Work and Pensions Secretary is continuing to position himself as the “credible” voice of anti-austerity campaigning as he bids to stave off what looks increasingly like a comfortable Corbyn victory in the leadership contest.

Smith says the Corbyn-led Labour Party is “failing” in its duty to provide a powerful Opposition to the Tories and goes on to set out what he sees as the risks of re-election for the veteran left-winger.

“This would offer the Tories a certain victory in 2020, with Labour becoming an unelectable political party. It will make the prospect of a Labour government in 2025 even more unlikely and unleashing a further wave of brutal right wing policies.

“Today I’m setting out in detail what an unencumbered Tory Party would look impose on the country.  This would include a massive expansion of grammar schools, further extending the use of the private sector in the NHS, the effective end of social housing and the use of the Brexit negotiations to dismantle hard won workers’ rights.

“We can only avert this by voting for change at this election. Yes we must maintain a radical anti-austerity agenda, but back it up with concrete policies to deliver change that can unite our party and the country.”

Smith’s speech comes just 24 hours after Ed Balls, the former shadow Chancellor, said the decision by Ed Miliband to allow hundreds of thousands of people to pay £3 to vote in the leadership contest had been a “catastrophic mistake”. Balls’ Speaking Out memoir is published this month.